So, one day you look down. Your feet are in shoes you don't recognize. Maybe you like them, maybe you don't. You can always change shoes. . . . Reinvention! . . . Your life begins here.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Pastors Gone Wild from Guns in Pulpit to Burning Bibles

Heard this at Field-Negro, some pastors in Detroit are hiding guns under their robes during their church services with the justification that they need to protect their congregations. He excerpted an AP article that begins with Rev. Lawrence Adams (no relation to me).

Responding to a break-in at his church on a Sunday evening, Adams surprised a burglar carrying out a bag of loot and shot the man in the abdomen after the man swung the bag at him.

The burglar survived - for which Adams is grateful - but the pastor said he could have been hurt or killed if he had not been armed. (AP at Philly.com)

I know Jesus asks us to use wisdom, and so protecting oneself would seem wise, but is this really what Jesus had in mind? As always at Field-Negro, the comment section is entertainment on its own.

I'm tucking this story on gun-toting pastors away with the blog post from Gena Haskett at BlogHer on the Bible burning a church held for its Harvest Night, an alternative to Halloween. The pastor thinks only the King James Version of the Bible is the Word of God and so he and his flock burned everything from the RSV to the NIV and NKJV. I wonder about this particular pastor's critical thinking skills. If you're that hung up in having the original, then why not make your congregation study Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic so they can read the scrolls? Why not do your own Bible because for all you know, the Canon itself has been compromised by religious politics.

People who've studied how the Bible's been translated over the years know that the KJV has flaws of its own. Some people hate the KJV. I actually like it for its lyrical flow, but when I'm really trying to get at the meaning, I pull out a concordance with original language definitions.

The also burned books by T.D. Jakes, Billy Graham, and Mother Theresa. The church, Amazing Grace Church of North Carolina, has only 14 members. I've not seen any follow-ups on this story regarding attendance at the Bible burning.

2 comments:

Ummm...I could tell some for real stories about pastors and guns in their churches. But since this is a public type forum, I'll pass since a couple of the folks involved are related to moi. There was a minister here who shot a man who was beating his female friend on the steps of his church. The young man decided since the pastor was trying to help the victim he would whip up on him too.The pastor shot the young man in the back. Which sparked some questions about how that happened-but I don't think he's going to do any time for his actions. I've know Catholic priest who were visibly strapped in certain churches because of the threat of crime. There was a robbery that occurred during a Sunday service. So, I really do understand why a pastor might feel the need to be armed. I think that this is definitely extreme-but I also consider it extreme when a person decides to rob a church.

The book burning is one of those events that I cannot wrap my head around. I always feel that when people are that threatened by the printed word-they are probably feeling pretty intimidated by the idea that someone might be forwarding an idea that they are afraid of facing.

Wow! Wow! There's nothing I can say except this is not the religion I grew up with or the beliefs that I live with. I would rather see metal detectors at the entry to the church than to have pastors resort to this. No turning the other cheek or following the 10 commandments - except the ones that are convenient. As for burning other versions of the Bible: narrowness, ig-no-rance, and other such adjectives.